Religion Dispatches
…ehearsed (always dry-eyed) poignancy, recounting how his commitment to The Code of Conduct left him to rot for five and half years, how trapped in solitary confinement he was allowed a minute or two outside on Christmas day, and how one guard looked him straight in the eye on that day (that holy day) and “drew with his sandal a cross in the ground.” In recent press events, this moment in Hanoi has become his road to Damascus, the tale told to shun…
Read More…ls can’t exist at Patrick Henry College because the students sign an honor code,” Farris claimed. “[Homosexuals] could not sign our honor code,” Farris said, adding that he considers the actions of gay men and women “sinful.” “Part of the honor code is to be sexually pure,” he added. Baratko speaks to a couple of the bloggers, who say they were inspired by other blogs at conservative Christian colleges like Bob Jones University (BJUnity), and he a…
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…“too involved in politics.” Not on the list: a desire for a stricter moral code. Along with another major study conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute, the Pew Forum found that Americans without religious affiliation strongly identified with the Democratic party and liberal social positions. All of which tends to indicate that Hout and Fischer were right when they said that disaffiliation is driven by a rejection of the religious righ…
Read More…think the obligation of the state is to help its citizens to be free and happy, unless their happiness disturbs others. I see no reason why their happiness would disturb others, therefore I support this bill.” Norway: Prime Minister Personally Backs Church Weddings, Affirms Church Authority We reported last week that the Church of Norway had affirmed its opposition to same-sex marriage. This week the country’s Prime Minister, Erna Solberg, said s…
Read More…ng the three hairdressers who brought the case. The judgment is subject to appeal and is only applicable in Negeri Sembilan. Transgender bans in other Malaysian states remain intact, Mr. Fahri said. The lead judge, Mohamed Hishamudin Mohamed Yunus, made it clear that the court was not ruling on homosexuality, which is illegal in Malaysia, and that transgender people had a disorder. “The present case has nothing to do with homosexuality,” he was qu…
Read More…veloped world to make our country and continent the dumping ground for the promotion of all immoral practices that have continued to debase the purpose of God for man in the area of creation and morality, in their own countries.” Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama went as far as saying “thank God that this bill was passed.” The failure of the Vatican to oppose or counter such statements implies approval; its hide-and-seek game essentially sanctions the p…
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…no one to turn to. Nepal: Activists call for changes in civil and criminal code Pahichan reports from Kathmandu that local human rights activists have submitted a memo to Speaker Onsari Gharti calling for changes to provisions of the civil and criminal code that violate the rights of women and gender and sexual minorities. Albania: Activists seek to build on LGBT progress with partnership recognition Kristi Pinderin, head of PRO LGBT, announced th…
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…in Taiwan, where the Constitutional Court ruled last month that the civil code restricting marriage to ‘a male and a female’ is unconstitutional. The Court gave legislators two years to amend the Civil Code. The article says, however, that “the Court’s arguments for same-sex marriage were not entirely straightforward and left room for further interpretation”: It could be that this was due to the Court’s desire to cool down the same-sex marriage d…
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…rent criminal code, which was basically translated from the Dutch criminal code. The latest version apparently does have a sodomy article. So we actually face the criminalization of homosexual acts.” Somoa: Prime Minister Says ‘Christian Country’ Will Never OK Abortion, Same-Sex Marriage Prime Minister Tuilaepa Seilele Malielegaoi said in a radio interview that Samoa is a Christian country and he would never allow “heathenistic practices” such as…
Read More…ehearsed (always dry-eyed) poignancy, recounting how his commitment to The Code of Conduct left him to rot for five and half years, how trapped in solitary confinement he was allowed a minute or two outside on Christmas day, and how one guard looked him straight in the eye on that day (that holy day) and “drew with his sandal a cross in the ground.” In recent press events, this moment in Hanoi has become his road to Damascus, the tale told to shun…
Read More